The Allure of Byzantium in the Albanian-Speaking Regions of SE Europe

For the most part of Byzantine history the Albanian-speaking regions of southeastern Europe were, for a good part, integral provinces of the Byzantine states, though not linearly. Since the fall of the Byzantine state in 1204, the control of these distant border provinces oscillated between the rapidly weakening Byzantine state and that by ‘Latin’ states, with intervals of centrifugal rule by local noblemen, on occasion with the support of ‘Latin’ powers of Byzantium’s successor states, until their post-1417 Ottoman annexation. In spite of the weakening agency of the Byzantine state in these provinces since the thirteenth century, the Byzantine cultural influence remained highly coveted. In this presentation, I shall focus on three facets of Byzantine cultural expression “beyond Byzantium:” first, in the artistic tastes evidenced in ecclesiastical art and architecture of the time; second, in the use of titles of Byzantine descent in the self-identifications of elite clergymen and noblemen; and third, in the fashion of the time, as evidenced by the few remaining representations of noblemen in the Albanian-speaking regions of southeastern Europe. As elsewhere, the cultural allure of Byzantium remained appealing in hearts and minds of its former subjects long after the Byzantine state was no more.